Conventional man-made fibers have evolved from single component filaments of essentially round cross-sections into fibers having cross-sectional shapes of various types. Some of the man-made fibers have more than one component. However, on progressing along the fiber axis of the conventional filament a lack of substantial structural, physical and chemical variation is encountered. This lack of the enumerated radial and axial variation greatly restricts the degrees of freedom in the above-mentioned properties of conventional fibers. The present invention overcomes the said limitations and restrictions. The control of variables (as they change from point to point) is accomplished in the fibers of the invention by joining accompanying fine filaments at points into an integral fiber structure.